ObamaCare Challenges Move Ahead in Court
Over the past two years, taxpayers have watched the national debt climb to a frightening $13.7 trillion as Congress and President Obama massively enlarged the size and scope of the federal government against the will of the people. Americans have simply had enough of the bailouts, tax hikes, earmarks, onerous regulations, and seemingly endless number of “jobs” bills. The passage of President Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation, however,was perhaps most symbolic of Washington’s reckless and profligate behavior.
On December 24, 2009, Senate Democrats managed to strong-arm enough members with giveaways such as the “Cornhusker Kickback” and “Louisiana Purchase” to pass Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) healthcare bill, H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This $2.5 trillion legislation, packed with tax increases, insurance mandates, Medicare cuts, and unfunded Medicaid expansions, was rammed through the House on March 21, 2010 in a 219-212 vote.
The Obama administration may have won its healthcare battle, but war is being waged over its legitimacy. There are currently more than 20 active cases challenging the healthcare overhaul on grounds that the law is an unprecedented overreach of power and violates the Constitution.
A small victory was achieved for taxpayers on October 14, 2010, when U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson rejected the Obama administration’s request to throw out a case brought by 20 states challenging the healthcare overhaul law. The suit was brought by Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorodo, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington and the National Federation of Independent Business.
Judge Vinson agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate and whether the law’s expansion of Medicaid is an unfunded mandate on state governments. The case will continue as previously scheduled with a hearing on December 16.
While Judge Vinson has given the green light in Florida, the state of Virginia, led by its Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, continues to press forward with its own lawsuit which also challenges the new law’s individual mandate. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson has said that he will rule on this case before the end of the year.
Beginning in 2014 under the new law, individuals will either have to purchase health insurance or pay a financial penalty to the government. The Obama administration contends that the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power of taxation,provides the right to levy this fee.
The problem with this penalty is two-fold. First, when the Obama administration pushed for passage of the healthcare bill, it vehemently denied the non-compliance penalty was a tax. Appearing on ABC’s ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopoulos on September 20, 2009, President Obama stubbornly refused to agree that the individual mandate is a tax increase; “…for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.” Now that it findsitself in hot water, the administration claims that the fee is, in fact, a tax and therefore legal under the Commerce Clause.This is an admission that President Obama tried to deceive the American people in order to gain support for his healthcare bill. Any way you slice it, the President is clearly trying to have his cake and eat it too.
The second major issue is that this individual mandate opens the door to boundless government intervention. Forcing Americans to buy health insurance just by virtue of being alive creates an extremely slippery slope for other federal mandates. What’s to stop the government from requiring residents to buy a car, pay for gym membership, or as Judge Hudson said, “eat asparagus”? Judge Vinson similarly pointed out that “the power that the individual mandate seeks to harness is simply without precedent.”
Recent developments in these two pivotal cases have proven to be a major setback for ObamaCare supporters, many of whom hoped to make healthcare reform the cornerstone of their reelection campaigns. An October 25, 2010 Rasmussen poll showed that 53 percent of likely U.S. voters favor repeal of the health care law, including 43 percent who strongly favor repeal. Only 42 percent oppose repeal of the bill, while 32 percent are strongly opposed.Feeling the pressure from constituents as November 2 approaches, many lawmakers who cast a vote in favor of the healthcare legislation have since downplayed their support of the bill.
Taxpayers, however, have not forgotten which lawmakers actively pushed this multi-trillion dollar legislation through against constituents’pleading phone calls, letters, emails, townhalls and rallies. Americans anxiously await the courts’ decisions and will undoubtedly closely follow thisfightall the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
— Erica Gordon
